Elyssa Quivershot - I've Been Everywhere
by Aleswall
Summary: Our story takes place in the lands of Kalimdor, a few thousand years after the Sundering and yet still years before the Kaldorei would emerge into the world. We follow a young Kaldorei, in training to become a Sentinel of Astranaar and Auberdine, and her struggles as she ends up far, far away from home.


Note:

All Night Elves, High Elves and Goblins are speaking their respective languages unless stated as such, in the case an Elf or a Goblin does speak another tongue, I'll make sure to mention it so as not to cause confusion! This is my first time publishing (Not the first time writing!) a Warcraft fan-fiction, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Prologue

Our story takes place in the lands of Kalimdor, a few thousand years after the Sundering and yet still years before the Kaldorei would emerge into the world. We follow a young Kaldorei, in training to become a Sentinel of Astranaar and Auberdine, and her struggles as she ends up far, far away from home. Through the help of her animal guide, the saber, Whisper, she re-discovers just what it means to be a Kaldorei – And learns of the terrible events to come.

Blood in the Woods

The muffled piercing of an arrow striking a tree echoed throughout the forests in the dead of the night, stopped only by the gentle rustling of leaves and the occasional midnight saber, come out for a daily hunt. Again the sound echoed, this time silenced by the creaking of a branch, high up on one of the tallest trees in the eastern forests of Ashenvale. It must've been a seventy foot drop, and yet the Elf who stood so confidently on the branch seemed not to care for the ground which urged to meet her. Clasping her bow in her right hand, she was adorned in the attire given to Sentinels-in-training, for that is just what she was. Her name was Elyssa Quivershot, daughter to a Druid of the Circle and Priestess of Elune, and rumoured to be the most promising Sentinel in over a century. She had barely reached her hundredth birthday when she first wielded a bow, a training bow though in her eyes, it still counted. Stood high on the branch, her willowy and wispy green hair was let loose to her shoulders and swept across her face in the cool night winds. Her silvery glowing eyes penetrated the darkness as she eyed a rudimentary target made from leaves on the next tree, around twenty feet away. Her first arrow had missed by several inches, her second was barely above the centre. As she stood up, the wind swept the tree's canopy layer open and moonlight reflected down, shining on her skin and highlighting her facial tattoos, going down over her eyes in the shape of glaives. Sighing, she crouched for a moment and thought back…

_Remember, Elyssa, using a bow is all about relaxing, speed and quick thinking._

With a newfound determination, she rose back to her feet and reaches her right hand over her shoulder, yanking an arrow free from her quiver and nocking it into the bow. She didn't think at all, or aim for that matter, and simply fired the arrow roughly toward her target. She stood there waiting to hear the impact of the arrow on the wooden trees – And yet she didn't. A loud screech filled the woods, she recognised it as being that of an owl, the screeching became quieter and quieter until she heard a loud thump and it stopped. Carefully, she slung the bow back onto her back, allowing the string to hang from her quiver and jumped off, swinging down from branch to branch, splinters and spikes tearing apart the flesh of her hands, each one making her gasp and cry out as quietly as she could. Eventually, she, too, landed in the mangled and unkempt undergrowth, needles and thorns grabbing onto her leather trousers as she hissed at them. It didn't take long before she saw a silvery substance on one of the leaves, a pain struck her heart the moment she realised it was blood reflecting the moonlight from the canopy layer. She almost cried out in pain once she realised, and saw, what she had done, her arrow sticking up from the body of a dead, yet clearly young, owl, blood spilled out on the ground around it.

_What have you done, Elyssa?! You are not a Huntress, it is not your place to kill Elune's creatures!_

Her body trembled slightly as she pushed two fingers down onto the owl's chest and swiftly pulled the arrow out, throwing it back into her quiver with a shaking sigh. Brushing some loose hairs behind her ear, she rose to her feet once more and looked around the cold, warm and forgiving forests of Ashenvale. Giving a sorry to Elune, and mostly for the Owl who's life had been so prematurely ended by a mistake, she untangled herself from the undergrowth and darted away from the large tree, leaping over a particularly thorny vine. She started to hear growls and the pant of a saber behind her, turning around mid-run to get a decent look. For a moment, she felt her running skills were outmatched until out of the moonlight-patched forest darted a white and black striped saber with slightly-glowing golden eyes. It would've knocked her down, though she had already tripped over a log and fallen to the floor in a mess. She gave a slight grin as the saber padded over toward her and began to lick the wounds on her hands.

"Did Whisper have a good run?" She asked the saber with a slight smile. Whisper made eye-contact with her, and somehow she understood that he did, indeed, have a very good run. A minute or so later, she had hopped back up to her feet and was soon sprinting away through the wet morning grass, Whisper only a few feet to her side.

The golden sun was beginning to rise over the distant horizon, through the pines and oaks, as Elyssa and Whisper began to see the shadow of their camp, in the centre of a circle of trees. The camp was made up of seven tents in total – Two of the larger tents were for the Sentinel's who had been sent to watch over and monitor the progress of the Trainees. The second largest tent belonged to Arryva Bowblade, a girl hoping to become a Sentinel who came from an extremely rich family, who made their profits off of selling fine silks. The other four tents belonged to the other, common, trainees, Elyssa being one of them, though with a significant difference. She was the only one in the camp who seemed to truly respect nature, the others being willing to go out and kill a saber or two for a decent meal over a campfire whilst Elyssa preferred to find fruits from the nearby trees. She gave a slight sigh of relief as she noticed the camp seemed still, though it was quite far away, at least a hundred feet dash until you reached it.

"D'you think we can get in without being noticed?" She asked herself quietly, half to herself and half to Whisper. Crouching down behind a tree, Whisper curling himself around her back and peeking out toward the camp, she began to notice all the different features of the landscape. It was quite free and unblocked from here to the camp, she could easily sprint over to it within around ten seconds, and the canopy layer of trees around the circle blocked off most sunlight between ten in the morning and two in the afternoon. Taking all of this into account, she suddenly hopped to her feet and began to sprint full-pace toward the camp. This was how she liked to run, on the open plains with nothing blocking her, yet not too long a distance either. Her willowy green hair billowed in the wind, her ceremonial ear-rings fluttering behind her, the cold wiring dragging along her neck. And within an instant, her sprinting came to an end, her foot slipped into some form of hidden ditch and caught, her other foot then hit the floor to hard, and she hit the ground with a loud thump and rolled a bit, groaning. It took her a moment to compose herself before she sat up and looked to where the ditch was.

It was a long dug-in ditch, she guessed it was circling around the entire camp to protect against intruders in some way, shape or form, yet it was also quite deep and wide, hidden by the tall grass. How she didn't know about this puzzled her for quite a long time, before she realised the sun was still further rising. At that point, she used Whisper to support herself as she hopped up and jogged back to the camp with a slight limp on her right foot. By the time she got there, Arryva was just leaving her tent, already dressed in her top-of-the-notch Sentinel uniform, despite only being a trainee. That was another perk of being from a rich family, they were capable of having the uniform made for their daughter rather than receive the free one once they'd completed the training.

"Show off.." Elyssa muttered to herself, grumbling as she slumped down by the smoking, yet extinguished, campfire. Whisper remained outside the camp, circling around Elyssa's tent on the very edge before lying down in the draped entrance.

It took Arryva a minute or two to realise that Elyssa was there, and not sleeping in her tent. She had clearly been intent on being awake first that morning, to impress the two Sentinels who had been sent here to keep an eye on them.

"Well, somebody _is_ up early today." She almost sneered at Elyssa as she lowered her head a bit, the ground beneath her rear hard as Arryva took a seat on one of the logs meant to be used by the actual Sentinels. She was quite arrogant like that.

"Well! Somebody _was _expecting to be awake first." Elyssa grinned to herself, rubbing her right shin with satisfaction, the bruise already forming bright yellow. Arryva seemed to have noticed and perked an eyebrow gently, as she tied her snow white and almost see-through hair into a neat ponytail.

"Where did you get that bruise from? We haven't been out in two days at least!"

Elyssa grumbled to herself, widening her eyes, she realised she would need a decent cover story, and she only had a few seconds to give Arryva one now!

"I.. Tripped. Over my pillow, this morning." She bluffed, and she had to admit, she did an absolutely terrible job at making it sound convincing, her voice shaking gently at the thought of being discovered. They were told on the first night that during the training, they were not to leave the encampment unless told they could.

Arryva smirked "I'm sure you did, Elly."

Arryva then rose to her feet and strode back into her tent, since she wasn't the first to be awake, there was no point to her of being awake at all yet, as long as she wasn't the final to wake.

Elyssa gave a slight shudder as she thought of the sight of the Owl again, it's body lying along the thorns and nettles, an arrow in it's chest and blood splattered on the floor around it. It seemed Whisper, who had quickly fallen asleep upon lying down, shared a similar thought in his dreams, letting out a discomforted grumble and twitching his tail from side to side. She smiled a bit at that.


End file.
